¨The Fields around the Palace¨

Zdravo (hello) from Bosnia-Herzegovina!! I just arrived in Sarajevo yesterday and took a walk around the city with my friend here, Dzenana Pasic. Dzenana and her family run a local grocery store and have also recently opened a motel. Dzenana also works as a camp counselor at PACT (Peace Action Children's Team), a non-profit organization which focuses on educating Bosnian, Serbian, and Croatian children about tolerance, peace-building, and reconciliation in the Balkans.

Sarajevo, which takes its name from saray‐ovasi (translation: the fields around the palace), has been the capital of BiH since 1850. The history of this city is amazing, in fact, yesterday I actually walked across the Latin Bridge where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot in 1914 by Gavrilo Princip (the event that sparked World War I).

Today and tomorrow I will be trying to set up meetings with local UN/EU officials who are involved in the reconciliation process here. I'm also looking forward to talking to a woman named Zeeba who is the Director for PACT in Sarajevo.

And finally, drumroll please.....pictures!!

The first two are from Rwanda (shots from the July 4th ¨moto-polo¨ match and the hills surrounding Kigali) and the last three are from South Africa (a sleepy lion at the animal observatory, the amazing landscape at Maropang, and a shot of downtown Jo'burg from the Nelson Mandela Bridge)







Ciao for now :)